Self-playing instrument.



Patented Mar. l3, I900.

E. C. HISCOCK.

SELF PLAYING INSTRUMENT.

(Apphcstlon filed June 19, 1899) EH mm Q (No Modal) mwmnuzbi UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

EMORY G. I-IISCOOK, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO THE IV. W. KIMBALLCOMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 645,172, dated March13, 1900.

Application filed June 19,1899. Serial No. 721,073- (No model) To all2071,0772, it 11mg concern:

Be it known that I, EMORY C. HIsoooK, a citizen of the United States,residing in Ohicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Self-Playing Instruments, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to self-playing organs; and it consists in thenovel construction of parts and devices,substantially as hereinafter setforth, whereby all or any number of a series of stops can be put into orout of service, as determined by the music-sheet.

The invention also relates to the construction of the means whereby themusic-sheet controls said device.

The nature of the invention will be fully disclosed from the descriptiongiven below when considered with reference to the accompanying drawings,in which- Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of those parts ofa self-playin g organ to which the invention relates; and Fig. 2 is apartial plan of the music-sheet.

In said drawings, A represents a cylinder supplied at one end withcompressed air by the pipe A and open to the atmosphere at the otherend, as seen at A. A piston A is movable longitudinally through thiscylinder by means presently to be described, the normal position of thepiston being that illustrated. At intervals throughout the length of thecylinder are pipes A, connecting it with different stops or groups ofstops of the organ and each acting to put the stop or stops with whichit connects into service when the pressure from the pipe A is cut offfrom it by the backward movement of the piston A away from the opening ABy moving the piston in the direction stated a crescendo effectwillobviously be produced, as such movement will bring the stops intoservice successively as their pipes A are uncovered by the piston andallowed to exhaust, a full stroke of the piston uncovering all saidpipes and bringing all the stops into action, and thus producing amaximum of sound, and partial strokes producing less marked effects,according to the number of said pipes uncovered. Diminuendos areproduced by the movements of the teeth corresponding to the number ofpipes A and opposite said racks are spring-pressed pawls B B eachadapted to engage the face of the rack nearest it. Said pawls arenormally held out of engagement with the rack by stationary pins orguides B but they are released from these guides by the longitude nalmovement of the pawls received from their operating-pneumatics B B assoon as they have moved far enough to carry the offsets B beyond theguides. Each pawl is provided with its own'pneumatic. The springs whichthrow the pawls into engagement with the racks when they have moved farenough to free them from the guides are shown at B The longitudinalmovements of the pawls are due to the inflating and deflating of thepneumatics, the deflating being aided in the usual manner by a spring,(not shown,) and for this purpose they are preferably attached directlyto the moving sides of the pneumatics, as thereby the latter exert adirect push and pull upon them; but they may be otherwise connectedtogether, if desired.

Theinflating and deflating of the pawl-opcrating pneumatics iscontrolled by the main music-sheet of the instrument, so that theoperating of the crescendo and diminuendo device islrendered as trulyautomatic as the operating of the valves which cause the speaking of thepipes or reeds. I accomplish this as follows: The music-sheet shown at Ois provided, preferably upon opposite sides, with perforations 0' and Cone set of perforations causing the cresendo efiect and the other thediminuendo. The tracker-range D is of course provided with specialair-ducts D, each registering with one set of said perforations in themusic-sheet. When one of said perforations moves over its correspondingtracker-duct,

the air thereby admitted to the d not is conducted by the pipe Dconnecting the duct, to the under side of a membrane E, located in whatma be termed the cou ler-casin "l\I and destroys the exhaust normallyexisting there and causes the lifting by the membrane of the stem E,upon which valves E and E are mounted. The chamber E above the membraneis constantly exhausted and commu- 'nicates with the inner side of themembrane limb of said right-angled portion leading from the chamberunder the membrane and the other limb thereof registering with the partE, which connects with chamber E. The valves I3 and E control the airunder pressure received from the pipe E and either admit such air to orcut it off from pipe E WVhen the supply is cut off from pipe E said pipeexhausts into the open air through the open chamber E The normalposition of the valves is that shown, with the high pressure present inpipe E". Said pipe E leads to a chamber above another membrane F, 10-eated in what I call the intermediate casing N, the space F under themembrane bestantly charged therewith, to the pipe G, leading to thepneumatic of one of the rack-operating pawls. In the case illustratedthe pipe G is shown as connecting with the pneumatic 13, operating thecrescendo-pawl B, and in the position shown, which is the normal one,the pneumatic is deflated, as pipe G has been allowed to discharge itscompressed air through space F. 7

It will be understood that the pneumatic devices above described,serving to inflate and deflate pneumatic B and thereby to actuate pawl13 and move the piston A in one direction, are substantially duplicatedinthe case of pneumatic B so that pawl 13 will actuate the piston inasimilar manner, but in the opposite direction. The pipe G serves toconnect pneumatic 13 with such duplicate action. 7

The operation of the apparatus is as follows: In the position shown inthe main figure the parts are at rest, with the tracker-ducts, the pipesG and G, and the pawl-pneumatics all exhausted and with the pipeconnecting the coupler with the intermediate charged with air underpressure. If the music-sheet is now set in motion and one of theperforations C or C therein passes over its corresponding tracker-duct,air will be admitted to the latter, which will destroy the exhaust underthe couplei membrane.

oi the coupler-valves E and the exhaus- This causes the shiftingdistance suflicient to uncover or cover one of the stop connections Athe direction of the movement thus given the piston being determined bythe perforations O or 0 Of course the pawl B cannot operate the pistonuntil after the latter has been moved from its normal position by pawlB. If the piston is to be moved more than one step or rack-space as, forinstance, when more of a crescendo is desired than would follow theputting of a single stop in action-the perforations in the music-sheetare repeated in close order, as illustrated at C The pipes A are enabledto control the motor=channels of the several stops in any suitable way,and I have illustrated a suitable construction as applying to one of thestops in .the main figure. In this construction each of said pipes leadsto the chamber of a separate membrane-motor Jin a casing J, and as thepipes A are normally charged with compressed air said membrane will benormally distended. Each membrane is attached to the stem J of thevalves J and J, controlling the motor-passage, by means of which thestop isthrown into action, and which passage in the case illustratedconsists of the pipes J and I, one leading to the stopaction and theother communicating with a com pressed-air supply. In the position ofthe valves shown the pipes J and J are in communication, so that thestop is not speaking; but ifthe piston A be moved far enough to uncoverthe corresponding pipe A the latter will be at once relieved of theair-pressure, and the membrane J will then collapse and allow the valvesJ 3 and J 4 to shift and close the communication between saidmotor-pastor-channel valves and connecting the chamber of such membraneor a chamber common to all of the series of membranes K to a source ofcompressed-air supplyby the pipe K. By admitting the air-pressure underthis membrane K the valves J 3 and J 4 will be held up in the positionillustrated, so that the motorchannel cannot operate the stop, andconsequently any movements of the piston A tale ing place while saidvalves are thus held will be inoperative. At the same time the stops arefree to be manipulated by hand. The

pipe K is of course controlled by a suitable valve and may be charged orexhausted at will.

To prevent any overthrow by the piston A and to hold the piston firmlyin any position to which it may be moved by the pawls and also toovercome any displacing tendency eX- erted upon it by the air-pressurefrom pipe A, I extend the rack, as shown at H, and corrugate one of thesurfaces of such extension and combine with it a spring-pressed rollerH. The operation of this device will be clearly understood from Fig. 1.

I claim 1. The combination in a self-playinginstrument with a series ofstop-actions, of a device for successively putting all or any number ofsaid actions into or out of service, means for giving said device-astep-by-step movement, and means whereby the music-sheet controls saidactuating means, substantially as speci fied. 2. Thecombinationinaself-playinginstrument, of a device for causing crescendoand diminuendo effects, a double rack-bar for actuat-ing said device,spring-pawls moving said rack in opposite directions, and pneumatics foractuating said pawls, substantially as specified.

3. The combinationinaself-playinginstrument, of a device for causingcrescendo and diminuendo effects, a double rack-bar for actuating saiddevice, spring-pawls moving said rack in opposite directions, pneumaticsfor actuating said pawls, and a music-sheet controlling said pneumatics, substantially as specified.

4:. The combinationinaself-playinginstrument, of a device for causingcrescendo and diminuendo effects, a double rack-bar for actuating saiddevice, spring-pawls moving said rack in opposite directions, pneuinatics for actuating said pawls, a m usic-sheet, and means whereby saidsheet controls said pneumatics, substantially as specified.

5. The combination with a crescendo and diminuendo device consisting ofthe cylinder A and piston A of the rack-bar attached to the piston, thepawls engaging the bar and moving the piston in opposite directions,pneumatics actuating said pawls, and means for inflating saidpneumatics, substantially as specified.

G. The combination with means for producing crescendo and diminuendoeffects having an operating device such as the piston A of racks andpawls for actuating saiddevice,

pneumatics moving the pawls, and a musicsheet and pneumatic-actions forcontrolling said pneumatics, substantially as specified.

7. The combination with the piston and its actuating devices, of afriction device for preventing overstrokes by the piston, &c.,substantially as specified.

8. The combination with the piston and its actuating devices, of theextension H having a corrugated surface, and a spring-pressed rollerriding on such surface, substantially as specified. V

9. In a pneumatic-action, a screw E having a bleeding-passage formed init, substantially as specified.

10. In a pneumatic-action, a screw E having a right-angled portion E ofa bleedingpassage formed in it, substantially as specified.

11. The combination in a self-playing in strument, of a crescendo anddiminuendo producing device controlled by the musicsheet, and meansoperable at will for preventing the operation of such device,substantially as described.

12. The combination in a self-playing instrument, of a crescendo anddiminuendo producing device controlled by the musicsheet, and means forrendering the stops independent of such device, substantially asspecified.

13. The combination in a self-playing organ, of a crescendo anddiminuendo device or stop, a music-sheet controlling said device andprovided with a row of perforations for putting said device into actionand another row of perforations for putting said device out of action,tracker-ducts corresponding to said perforations, and pneumatic meansfor operating said device, substantially as specified.

14:. The combination in a self-playing organ, of a series ofstop-actions, a device for throwing all or a portion only of saidactions into and out of service, and pneumatic means for operating saiddevice, said means embracin g the music-sheet and tracker -range, ofwhich the former is provided with two rows of perforations and thelatter with two ducts adapted to cause the operation of said device andto regulate the extent of its operation, substantially as specified.

EMORY C. HISCOOK.

lVitnesses:

H. M. MUNDAY, EDW. S. EVARTS.

